IMPOSTURE as a cultural and historical phenomenon has a venerable history in Russia. The tradition of imposture originates at the end of the XVI-beginning of the XVII centuries, in the era of Troubles, and periodically revives during periods of socio-political crises throughout the XVIII-beginning of the XX century. XIX centuries. After the October Revolution, imposture in Russia is experiencing a new flourish.

Extant information about the imposture of the end of the XVI-early XX century. The 19th century is marked by Kirill Vasilyevich Chistov as a legend about the "returning deliverer". In his work, which became a classic and devoted to Russian folk utopias, Chistov analyzed in detail the genesis and structure of such legends.1 In recent years, a number of works have appeared on the phenomenon of imposture in the XX century. Special attention should be paid to the work of A. Arkhipova, in which the author summarizes the material of the "impostor" legends of the XX century, and not only monarchical ones, but also legends about the return of the Bolshevik leaders Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, etc. 2

The task of introducing numerous materials about imposture into scientific circulation, which are reflected in the activities of the punitive bodies of the Soviet government of the Cheka - OGPU - NKVD, remains quite urgent. On the basis of archival sources, mainly concerning the Urals and Siberia, the work was written by V. In Alekseeva and M. Yu. Nechaeva about the "returning" pre --

Chistov K. 1. Russian folk utopia (genesis and functions of socio-utopian legends). St. Petersburg: Dmitry Bulanin Publ., 2003.

Arkhipova A. 2. The last "tsar-deliverer": Soviet mythology and folklore of the 20-30s of the XX century. N 12. Online version - http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/0120nline/12_online_arkhipova.pdf

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representatives of the Romanov Dynasty 3. A similar goal is pursued by this work: to introduce into scientific circulation information about imposture in Chuvashia in the 1920s-30s based on the materials of investigative cases of the NKVD bodies.

On March 21, 1937, based on operational information, the NKVD of the Chuvash ASSR searched the house of Ivan Stepanovich Yamukov, a resident of the village of Kulgeshi, Urmar district of the CHASSR. As a result of the search, a secret cave was found under the floor of Yamukov's house, where two women and a man illegally lived, who were detained by the authorities. The women gave their names as Alexandra Saratova and Pelageya Gromova, and the man-Priest Vasilevsky. The investigation, at the time of the search and arrest, already had information that Alexandra Saratova was posing as the daughter of former Emperor Nicholas II, which became the main subject of interest of investigators and the main point of charge.

Alexandra Saratova was born on June 2, 1905 in Baku, in the family of Ilya Ivanovich Abrosimov, a model-maker, a native of the village of Soldatsky Baran, Bilyarsky volost, Chistopolsky Uyezd, Kazan province. In 1919, at the age of 14, Alexandra married a citizen of the village of Gorki, Chistopol district, Bilyar volost, Pyotr Nikolaevich Saratov. In 1922, in the village of Gorki, the GPU authorities uncovered the activities of an "anti-Soviet organization" headed by a certain Yegor Rodionovich Sorokin. Sorokin served more than 10 years in the military service at the imperial court, where he could see the family of Nikolai P. Sorokin and became the first to spread rumors that Saratova was the daughter of the tsar Olga Nikolaevna Romanova.4 Saratova was sent for examination to the Kazan District Psychiatric Hospital. A specially created commission found that Saratov:

Quite conscious, well-versed in the surrounding environment. It does not detect delusions or deceptions of the senses. Provides resistance to physical examination and perseverance

Alekseev V. V., Nechaeva M. Yu . 3. The Resurrected Romanovs?.. K istorii samozvanchestva v Rossii XX veka: v 2 ch. Ch. 1 [To the history of imposture in Russia of the XX century]. Yekaterinburg: Institute of History and Archeology, 2000.

4. GIA CHR. f. 2669. Op. 3. D. 3737. l. 4 vol.

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the latter brings her to tears. As can be seen from the mournful list of the Hospital, the patient's mood during her stay in the Hospital was highly variable: sometimes she was good-natured and cheerful, but, on the contrary, she had an unmotivated state of depression and melancholy, and even a tendency to suicide. So, for example, on 18 / VIII she attempted to poison herself with bleach lime, and on 27 / IX she tried to cut her hand in the area of the left wrist joint with a piece of glass in order to open large vessels.

Based on the above examination, it is necessary to conclude that the citizen of Saratova Alexandra Ilyinichna suffers from a severe form of hysteria in the presence of objective data in the areas of: sensitive, reflex and motor with periodic changes in mental activity in the form of recurring twilight states, false ideas and fantasies. During such psychopathic states, she may have committed the crime incriminated to her (for example, imposture, perjury, etc.) 5.

An interesting characteristic that was given to Saratov by doctors of a psychiatric hospital after further observation of her is interesting:

Currently, the patient is noted: in the sphere of feelings, a rapid change of mood for the most insignificant reason and sometimes without any reason, and these moods easily reach affect (anger, crying); recently she threatened to kill one patient who offended her. The patient is now animated, talkative, laughing, then does not talk to anyone and lies in bed, wrapped in a blanket. In the sphere of intelligence, the patient has no special deviations from the norm, she is quite conscious, answers questions correctly, and, however, in conversation there is a certain mannerism, a tendency to speak in hints, a desire to show that she has some secret. Delirium does not express deceptions of feelings and any ideas, mental development corresponds to the development of a semi-intelligent person who has not even received a secondary education, judgments are superficial, speech in conversation is not very close to literary, he puts his thoughts in writing randomly-with rudeness-

5. Ibid. d. 3738. l. 210, 217-217 vol.

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with etymological, syntactic, and stylistic errors, the handwriting is childish.

The patient's behavior towards other people is correct. It doesn't offend anyone, it doesn't affect anyone, but if someone touches it, it reacts sharply. Religious: often prays for a long time. He is a keen reader of books, usually of a non-fiction nature. In recent months, he shows a penchant for work, is engaged in sewing and knitting. He likes to advertise his sympathies for the family of former Emperor Nicholas II, for which he collects old magazines and calendars, cuts out pictures of them depicting members of the reigning house and decorates the walls with them.6
I must say that the regime of Saratova's detention in a psychiatric hospital was quite mild: she was free to leave the hospital in the city, had personal belongings, clothes at her disposal, and received visitors. One of these visitors was Pelageya Gromova, a citizen of the village of Kulgeshi, Urmarsky district of the Chuvash ASSR. Gromova herself lived as a servant of the clergy from 1903, and from 1921 she began to wander around monasteries and sell religious objects.: oil, incense, crosses. Gromova often visited Kazan as well. Her acquaintance with Saratova took place, as she testified during the interrogation, under the following circumstances::

In 1924, I was in the Kazan Cathedral, where I met a citizen who identified herself as Alexandra Stepanovna Azyamova, who served as a supervisor of the Kazan psychiatric hospital. She also told me that during the war she served as a nurse in the Tsarskoye Selo infirmary. I do not know, someone told her that I was a wanderer and she, Azyamova, began to tell me that an innocent girl who is the daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, Olga Nikolaevna, suffers in the Kazan psychiatric hospital. Having said this, Azyamova took me to the hospital and showed me "Olga Nikolaevna" and asked me to help her in any way I could. Since 1924, I began to go to the hospital to see her often, sometimes even visited up to twice a week and each time brought something to help. Named by Asiamova before-

6. Ibid. l. 221-221 vol.

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the daughter of Tsar Nicholas II-Olga Nikolaevna Romanova, who is the lady of Saratov Alexandra Ilyinichnaya 7.

According to Gromova, Saratova herself did not spread rumors about her royal origin, it can be assumed that the staff of the psychiatric hospital was involved in this.

Saratova often left the hospital to visit churches, where, apparently, she met local nuns Evdokia and Stepanida, as well as Ekaterina Koshikhina, who lived near the Church of the Descent, and together with Saratova, the servants of the hospital also went to them. The nuns, left without a monastery, were sharply hostile to the Soviet government and, referring to a certain priest Zubkov, who was revered as a prophet, predicted the imminent end of Bolshevism: "The time is coming when as soon as the war begins, so will be the end of Soviet power, because as soon as the war begins, there will be uprisings inside the country that will accelerate the overthrow of Soviet power. The war is coming soon, everything is already ripe for that." According to Saratova, some Germans were among the nuns 'visitors:" two men and two women who arrived in a car, which they and Koshikhina talked about in another room, I didn't have to find out. But Kosikhina told me, " that these people are their own, there is nothing to fear from them." At the same time, she added that these Germans "serve on some farm"8.

On May 2, 1934, Saratova went for a walk and never returned to the hospital. We can assume that this escape was prepared in advance. According to nurse Kholmskaya, " recently it was noticeable that Saratova's material affairs were shaken, she did not throw money or things as before.<... A few days before her escape, Saratova said that she should take the fur coat away, hide it so that the moth wouldn't hit it. <...> Saratova spoke more than once about her intention to leave the hospital, but no one could attach any importance to this, since Saratova deceived everyone too much."9
After escaping from the hospital, Saratova settled in the village of Turmyshsky vyselok with Timofey Vasilyevich Surnov, who often brought her messages to the hospital as the emperor's daughter. At Surno-

7. Ibid. d. 3737. l. 46-46 vol.

8. Ibid. l. 9. ob. - 10.

9. Ibid., d. 3738. L. 222.

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A cave disguised as a bathhouse was built for Saratova to live in. After spending the winter of 1934-1935 with him. Saratova moved to Andrey Kuzmich Chernov in the village of Kartluevo, Kozlovsky district of Chuvashia, who also had a cave dug under a grain barn. At the beginning of 1936, Chernov was brought to justice for speculating in cooking oil and, on Chernov's advice, Saratova moved to the village of Kulgeshevo, Urmarsky district of the CHASSR to Ivan Stepanovich Yamukov, with whom she lived in a cave until her arrest.10 The investigation file contains a detailed description of this cave, made during the search.:

In the back part of the house, between the back wall and the stove in the corner, two floorboards are removed, and a passage of 60 x 90 centimeters is made into the ground, and a depth of 3.7 meters. An elegant wooden staircase is built in this passage, from the staircase inside under the house there is a passage with a width of 59 snm., a length of 1.16 meters. The walls of the passage are well sheathed with plank with a door to cave No. 1.

Cave No. 1, 2.22 meters long, 2.81 meters wide and 1.84 meters deep. The circle is covered with plank and covered with white wallpaper with a thin pattern.

The cave has a good smell of grass, perfume, etc.

In the left corner, 25 icons are painted all over the walls, with brightly burning lamps and wax candles, on the shelf (pious woman) in front of the icons are metal candlesticks, two crosses, etc. decoration, i.e. an altar is equipped. In front of the icons is a lectern covered with a tablecloth, on which are: a large cross in a wreath of artificial flowers; the gospel, a picture of b. tsar Nicholas 2 and a picture of the House of Romanov - Nicholas 2.

On the right side of the cave: there is an iron bed with a bed consisting of: a feather bed, white down pillows, sheets, a cotton blanket and a flannel blanket. A church is built from the bed to the altar. velvet carpet.

Under the bed is a chest with underwear and other clothes.

10. Ibid. d. 3737. l. 5-5 vol.

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On the other side of the icons are 8 different church books, a velvet headscarf.

At the back wall is an iron furnace 77 cm long, 51.5 cm wide, and 88 cm high.

A wire is attached to the ceiling on a spiral spring and from the spiral spring there is a wire leading to the exit to the house of I. S. Yamukov.

In cave No. 1 in the corner towards the courtyard door exit to the corridor.

The corridor is covered with plank and papered with wallpaper with a width of 6o cm, a length of 1.6 meters. At the back of the corridor is a washbasin, two doors: one to cave No. 1 and the other to cave No. 2.

Cave No. 2, 2.54 meters long, 2.13 meters wide and 1.92 meters deep, is covered with a circle of plank and covered with a good wallpaper with a thin white pattern. The cave smells of grass, incense, etc.

In the left corner, all the walls are well decorated with nine different icons, lamps burning against them, on the shelf under the icons is decorated with various religious cards and three photographs: one of two nuns, the second of three sisters of mercy, and the third of a prayer service in the Karachevo Church. There are also bottles of essential oil near the icons.

On the other side of the icons are 43 different church books, and a windowsill hangs.

On the right side of the cave is a wooden bed with a bed consisting of a feather bed, feather pillows, sheets and a blanket. Under the bed is a drawer with underwear and shoes. There is a carpet from the bed to the icons.

Not far from the bed, a table is built against the front wall: on the table there are pieces of white bread and dried fruits, a cup, a cup, a teapot, a primus lamp, and so on.

At the back of the cave is a cast-iron stove: a one-meter-high "fireplace".

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In front of the cave, in the right corner towards the courtyard to the stable door, 45 cm wide. Well sheathed and insulated, i.e. exit to cave No. 3.

Passage, (course of communication) to the cave N 3, length 4 meters width 58.5 microns. and a depth of 2 meth.

Cave No. 3 is 5 meters long, 2.20 meters wide, and 2.20 meters deep. This cave is in the stage of internal equipment, as the appropriate timber is prepared for it.

In this cave No. 3 there is a tub of honey and a large iconostasis with glass (obviously this iconostasis was placed in the cave during construction, since the iconostasis did not pass through any doors and remained in place without being removed from the cave). At the back of this cave, under the stable door, there is a passage 60 cm wide and 70 cm long. At the end of this passage is a wooden staircase and a hollow tree up to the threshold of the stable. On a thick board, there is a carefully crafted threshold at the stable door, and this threshold does not inspire any suspicion of the existing hollow-the passage to the cave. This threshold moves and goes under the stable wall and opens a hollow with a width of 40 cm and a length of 90 cm in the entire stable door 11.

This description, in my opinion, gives a clear idea of what the catacombs looked like in the XX century, especially since visual materials on this topic are often absent.

Urmarsky district of Chuvashia in the 1930s was one of the centers of the catacomb movement in Chuvashia. Archimandrite Agafangel (Afanasy Semyonovich Etrukhin) led the movement in the district. Etrukhin was born in 1908. In 1925-1927, he was a resident of the Makaryevsky monastery of the Kazan diocese, where he became a monk with the name Agafangel (in the monastic order Agafobus (or Agafonus, maybe Agafon?)). On June 9, 1928, he was ordained a hierodeacon by Bishop Herman (Coquel), and on June 10 of the same year, he was ordained a hieromonk. In 1929, he was elevated to the rank of Archimandrite.

According to O. Agafangel during the interrogation,

11. Ibid., pp. 166-167.

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..the emergence of the organization ... "True Orthodox Christians" in Chuvashia dates back to the summer of 1929. The first initiators and organizers of this case were the priest Kornilov, who was then serving in the village of Burtasy, Urmarsky district (now in exile), and I. At that time, we had a good time to get acquainted with the declaration of independence. St. Sergius, published in the press, where he called on the clergy and faithful to be loyal to the Soviet government, but even more, he said that the sorrows of the Soviet government are our sorrows. The joy of the Soviet government is our joy, and so on. We, as deeply religious people, could not agree with this in general. Sergius saw a clear betrayal of "True Orthodoxy" and the tradition of the church. In the name of saving "True Orthodoxy" and preventing the closure of churches, as far as conditions allow, we decided to create a k/r organization "CPI" in Chuvashia, to find a bishop who is firm in Orthodoxy. Priest Kornilov then said that there is such a bishop in Kazan in exile Nektary, so we should unite around him, and I agreed with him ... 12

Fr. Agafangel received something like a letter of commendation from Bishop Nektary:

G. I. H. S. B. P. N. A.

This is given to Hieromonk Agathobus Etrukhin in that he has indeed departed from the apostasy of St. Sergius and is an Orthodox holy monk of the Church of Christ, being in ecclesiastical communion with bishops who have departed from Mitr. St. Sergius, <...> the said Hieromonk Agathobus is blessed with the fulfillment of pastoral duties for Orthodox people living within the borders of our Fatherland and avoiding the Church and prayerful communion with the clergy and bishops - supporters of St. Sergius ' impiety and apostasy.

1929 23 / III-Kazan Nektary ep. Yaransky 13.

Fr. Agafangel was joined by priests Vasily Khristoforov from the village of Churachiki in the Tsivilsky district, Tikhon Fomin from the village of Kibechi in the Kanashsky district, and Koltsov from the village of Khormaly in the Ibresinsky district.

12. Ibid. d. 3738. l. 230-242 vol.

13. Ibid., l. 234.

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Communities belonging to the group were located in the following villages: Burtasy village, Churachino village, Kibechi village, Yanikovo village, Karan-Sirma village, Vurmankasy village, Oikasy village, Shigali village, Vysokovka village, Irkh-Sirma village, Kormaly village, Hrmolakh village, Sheroutov village, Kubnya village, Monsery village and a number of other villages and villages.

O. Agafangel's group was in an illegal situation. Agafangel and other priests held secret services in the homes of their followers, held conversations about the fact that "The Soviet power is the power of the 'antichrist', we, in Russia, now have Satan, and if this is so, then <...> true Christians need to fight the antichrists." Collective farms were particularly disliked: "the collective farm is the path to communism, i.e. godlessness", "whoever goes to the collective farm will already be considered an unbeliever"...Wanting to preserve as many believers as possible and strengthen the faith, we decided: "Believers cannot be on the collective farm, those who have entered must leave the collective farms, and we must dissuade those who want to enter from joining,"14 Fr. Agafangel said.

There are also eschatological expectations: "Soon a terrible night will come, on this night the faithful, clergy and kulaks will be destroyed by the Communists. Prepare for death to create a prayerful mood among believers. This night must come in the spring of 1932. " 15 In 1932, among the followers of Jerome. Agafangel was arrested, and Etrukhin himself was sentenced to 5 years in a concentration camp16.

After serving his sentence, O. Agafangel returned to his native village in 1936. Monarchical views have become widespread in the communities of Agafangel Island. By this time, rumors about the escaped Tsarevna Olga had spread widely throughout the Kazan region. From the vicar Bishop of Chistopol, Joasaph (Udalov), who also had just returned from exile, Agafangel learned about Saratova and decided to meet her. During the interrogation Saratova described this meeting in detail:

In the month of January, 1937, a nun from d came to my cave. Karn-Sirmov of the Urmar district Alekseyeva Pelagia, who told me that Agafobus wants to see me. I gave my consent and ask-

14. Ibid., l. 239.

15. Ibid., l. 240.

16. Ibid., l. 243.

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I want him to come. A few days later, Etruchin Agathobus and the above-mentioned nun Pelagia, who were in my cave in the evening and we talked, actually appeared.

Question: What did you talk to him about then? Answer: Etrukhin Agafobus told how he was sent into exile and how long he was there. He said that soon there would be a war and the end of Soviet power would come. He also said that the Antichrist appeared on earth, that the existing churches are false churches, and that the underground church is now a real Orthodox church. After sitting for about half an hour, Agathobus went out of the cave to Ivan Stepanovich's hut, spent the night there, and apparently left early. When Agathobus was in the cave, he invited me to visit him.

Question: What other conversations did you have?

Answer: He told me that he had known me for a long time as Grand Duchess (sic! - AB) Olga Nikolaevna. But who he knew or heard from, he didn't tell me.

Question: Give your testimony to the investigation, under what circumstances and where did your meeting with Agathobus take place in February 1937?

Answer: In February, s/g, I don't remember the date, we went with Thunder Pelagia to her sister's bee-house, which is located in the forest at a distance of 3-4 kilometers from the village. Ornary, Urmar district. We went to get honey, and Ivan Stepanovich Yamukov's son, Ivan, drove us. On the way back, we stopped at the village of Carne-Sirma to visit the nun Pelagia around 8-9 o'clock in the morning. When we arrived at Pelagia's house, we found a divine service being performed by Agathobus. Together with him was the psalmist of Agathobus-Gregory, whose name and patronymic I do not know, but he comes from the village of Kark-Sirmov. There was also the housewife herself and no one else. During the service, he commemorated all the members of the royal court.

Question: Who did Agathobus, the nun Pelagia, take you for when you visited them?

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Answer: I was received as Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna Romanova.

Question: What conversations did you have with Etrukhin Agafobus at that time?

Answer: Etrukhin Agafobus told my psalmist Grigory that the cave where I live with Ivan Stepanovich Yamukov is very well arranged, cozy and very secret. Later in the conversation with me, he said that he would try to visit our cave and perform the service. The fact that I am the daughter of Tsar Nicholas - Olga Nikolaevna, Agathobus, according to him, heard personally from Bishop Joasaph, who lives in Kazan. At the same time, Agathobus literally stated to me: "Joasaph confirmed to me that you are Olga Nikolaevna." 17
Saratova's activities as the daughter of Nicholas II, presumably, brought a decent income both to Saratova herself and to those who provided her with shelter and made up her "retinue". According to Saratova herself, when she was in a psychiatric hospital, Timofey Surnov brought her yuoo rubles, which she spent on buying clothes, Yamukov for Saratova as for Princess Olga from a peasant woman in a neighboring village received a donation in the form of 22 poods of rye and 45 poods of potatoes, the peasant der. Mikushka named Grigory gave all his savings-zoo rub. Pavel Vasilevsky, a priest who lived with Saratova and performed services for her, was particularly zealous in collecting donations for the emperor's daughter. As Saratova testified during the interrogation:

Priest Vasilevsky, I don't know what village he lived in, I don't even know his last name, but Ivan Ambrosimovich, was pumping the masses of believers for what he needed. This Ivan Ambrosimovich gave Vasilevsky personal money in the amount of 50 rubles and gave him 50 rubles, which he borrowed from a single-village Ivan Alekseevich. Ivan Ambrosimovich declared to Vasilevsky: "I will get everything for you, I will sell the house and all the property, but I will provide for you." He gave Vasilevsky chrome boots, which Vasilevsky gave me.

17. Ibid. d. 3737. L. 6-7.

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Ivan Ambrosimovich considered Vasilevsky my husband, and me the daughter of the former. Tsar Nicholas - Olga Nikolaevna Romanova, so he showed his loyalty to Vasilevsky.

Vasilevsky made every effort to acquire a cross, to perform divine services in a separate secret room in which I lived, and precisely to glorify me as the daughter of former Saints. Tsar Nicholas - Olga. For this purpose, he took a gold ring from me, took several gold and silver coins from Thunder Pelagia. As a result, this cross was ordered by Vasilevsky in the mountains. Kazan for 200 rubles, but I don't know where or if it was delivered to him.

When visiting the villages of believers, Mr. Vasilevsky always told them: "... we live in caves, soon there will be such a time that only in these caves you will have to save yourself."

Vasilevsky received 70 rubles. from gr-na der. Shanara, Vasily Fyodorovich, I don't know his last name. This Vasily Fyodorovich also gave me 100 rubles, and invited me to move to live with him in a specially equipped underground secret room 18.

After Saratova's meeting with Agafangel (Etrukhin) Vasilevsky began to fear competition from his side:"...I will not allow you to have Agathobus as your priest,"Vasilevsky told Saratova," I will prove to him by the church rule that he, as a 26 - year - old young man, cannot be a priest and therefore only I will perform divine services. " 19 It should be noted that Etrukhin himself, it seems, after meeting with Saratova began to relate to her. it is quite cool to her.

The monarchical expectations of the admirers of Tsarevna Olga were paradoxically refracted in the minds of some peasants into a kind of "Zionism" through spontaneous anti-Semitism. So the peasant-sole proprietor Ivan Mikhailovich Pimenov, who was held in the Saratova case, stated in an interview with the latter:

18. Ibid., l. 16 vol.

19. Ibid. l. 16-16 vol.

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The Soviet government will not exist for a long time, it rests only on the Jews. He interpreted the words "Proletarians of all countries - unite" as follows: Jews are scattered all over the world and in order to gather them in one place, they threw out this slogan.

Lenin sold all the Russian people to the Jews, and many of them were brought to Russia. Once Lenin sold the people, but there are still those who are not sold, these are we who are faithful to the Orthodox faith. He said these words while pointing to a silver coin with the slogan "Proletarians of all countries - unite"20.

The investigative case about "Tsarevna Olga" allows us to get an idea of how large-scale this phenomenon was. During the investigation, it turned out that Alexandra Saratova is not the only "representative" of the Romanov House in Chuvashia and the Middle Volga region. In Kazan lived Praskovya Petrovna Kozurina, who was considered Tsarevna Anastasia, she was married to a chauffeur 21. In Kuibyshev, a certain Timofey Bezgroshev claimed to be the brother of Nicholas II, Mikhail Alexandrovich22. "Nicholas II" himself often came to the villages of Tyurlem and Cheshlam. While visiting Yamukov's house, this unknown man stated in November 1936::

The census will be held around Christmas, so we all need to be prepared, otherwise something may happen, because after the census, people will be chosen who will be arrested, exiled, etc. 23.

In September of the same year, a certain grandfather came to Saratova, who also called himself Nikolai P. Grandfather was asked to become a bishop in the community, and He told her to ask God to bless him. On this issue, "Nicholas II" did not order to appeal to any metropolitan, whom he called blasphemers and apostates. As Saratova testified during the interrogation:

I remember in one of Petrov's visits, Peter also met with an unknown citizen called Nicholas II

20. Ibid. l. 21-21 vol.

21. Ibid., l. 25.

22. Ibid. l. 10 vol.

23. Ibid., l. 9.

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in the house of Ivan Stepanovich Yamukov, I gave him 60 rubles of money and a 2-meter bobrik. From this bobrik gr-n D. Yantikovo Kozlovsky district Milaev Anton Mikhailovich sewed Nikolai the Second jacket 24.

At the same time, Mikhail Yershov preached in the Chistopolsky district of Tatarstan, whom his followers recognized as either Prince Michael or Christ himself.25
The utopian expectations of a" deliverer " from the Romanov family in the 1920s and 1940s were characteristic not only of the Orthodox environment. In the course of my field research conducted in 2001 in Alatyr, I managed to communicate with a local resident who in her youth had very close contact (they lived in a neighboring house)with local leaders of the sect of Christ-believers (khlystov) Alexander Filippovich and Tatyana Filatov. According to the latter, in the 1960s-1980s. among the Christian believers, there was a legend that after the revolution, Tsarevna Olga came to Alatyr, and even supplied them with money. As the documents show, something like this actually took place. In late 1922-early 1923, at the apartment of the local prophetess Agrippina (Grusha) Kamushkina (Lapteva) lived a woman who pretended to be the daughter of the former Tsar Nicholas - Olga. Kamushkina, together with the prophet V. S. Petukhov, who also lived in her apartment at that time, tried to advertise the "queen" especially among sectarians. In the house of Kamushkina, pilgrimages of Christian believers began. After some time, Kamushkina and Petukhov transported the "queen" first to the Mordovian village of Alovo, and then to S. Krestnikovo, Ulyanovsk district of the then Samara region, to the house of V. S. Petukhov. The "Tsarina" was furnished with special honor, and Grusha Lapteva played the role of her personal secretary: she fulfilled her requirements, served her (in the sense of transmitting orders and demands to get a certain amount of money, etc.). So the "tsarina" lived for several months (in 1923), and then returned to Russia. then she decided to go abroad to visit her fiance, the heir to the Japanese emperor. And allegedly had already information that the Japanese impe-

24. Ibid. l. 19 vol. - 21.

25. For more information about Mikhail Yershov, see Berman A. Materials on the history of the movement of True Orthodox Christians-Mikhailovtsy. Cheboksary, 2007; Warrior of Christ the Faithful and True. Secret Bishop of the CPI Mikhail (Yershov). Biography, letters, documents / Comp. by I. V. Ilichev, Moscow: Bratonezh Publ., 2011.

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Rathor had sent an army, and soon the Bolshevik power would be overthrown, and she and the heir to the Japanese throne would come to Russia. Grusha and Petukhov gave an order to raise funds for sending the "queen" abroad through Odessa. We collected a lot of money, in addition, in gold. As it turned out later, a large sum of gold fell into the hands of Grusha Lapteva, who then sold them in Alatyr and Sverdlovsk.

The Tsarina's preparations for going abroad took place approximately in the spring of 1924. She was accompanied by a trusted person (male, Chuvash by nationality). About him, the "queen" said that he was an officer who saved her during the revolution, " recalled a member of the community S. F. Fomichev. But, having left for Odessa, the "queen" soon found herself back in the house of V. S. Petukhov, saying that on the way she was robbed. This was a big surprise for the organizers of her send-off. With less money, she was sent back to Odessa. In 1940, Fomichev, while visiting Petukhov in Ulyanovsk, once asked about the future fate of the"queen". Petukhov said: "She recently came to us, ragged, hungry. We got scared, and she started asking for the addresses of some of the brothers from Krestnikov, but of course I didn't tell her, so they gave her money and a few things and escorted her out. We are afraid that she might be a spy"26. Thus, it can be argued that the phenomenon of imposture in the Middle Volga region in the 1920s and 1940s was widespread.27
The further fate of the participants in the Saratova case turned out to be tragic. The tragic situation is further aggravated by the fact that Alexandra Saratova was pregnant at the time of her arrest. According to the certificate available in the case file, the accused in the Saratov case, Alexandra Ilyinichna, was placed in the maternity ward of the Institute of Sanitation and Hygiene on April 2, 1937, where she

26. Ibid. d. 4622. l. 78 vol. - 79 vol.

27. The work of Alekseyev and Nechaeva suggests that imposture was widespread not only in the Volga region. Archival documents concerning imposture are only now being introduced into scientific circulation, which allows us to hope for the appearance, over time, of generalizing studies on imposture in the USSR. However, with the adoption of the law on personal data, which effectively closes the Soviet archival funds for researchers, this process may take a long time. It is interesting that the plot related to imposture even got on the pages of the novel by Ilf and Petrov, which may indirectly indicate the prevalence of this phenomenon in the USSR, in all its varieties.

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on the night of April 3, she gave birth. After giving birth, Saratova was again transferred to Cheboksary prison 28.

In total, 10 people were involved in the Saratova case. On August 25, 1937, the troika of the NKVD of the CHASSR sentenced Saratova Alexandra Ilyinichna Etrukhin Afanasy Semyonovich (Archimandrite of the Russian Orthodox Church). Agafangel), his brother Ananiy Semyonovich Etrukhin, Ivan Stepanovich Yamukov, Pavel Gavrilovich Vasilevsky, a priest, and two other people were sentenced to death by firing squad; the rest of the participants in the case were sentenced to imprisonment in a correctional labor camp for terms ranging from 8 to 10 years. 29
The events described in this article took place against the background of collectivization that was not yet over, which was accompanied not only by the socialization of the means of production in the countryside, but also by a sharp break in the usual way of life generated by the sole use of land for the peasant family's own needs. Even before the revolution, attempts by the tsarist government to introduce public plowing to combat hunger were strongly opposed by the peasants. Such attempts caused the so-called Akramov uprising in Chuvashia in 1842. Moreover, the peasant consciousness refused to put up with such a radical phenomenon as collectivization. Socialization of land and working cattle was considered by the peasants not just as an economic measure, but as the end of any social order in general. The revolution and Civil War did not evoke the same doomsday feeling as collectivization. Some attempts at armed confrontation between the peasants and the Soviet government were suppressed by harsh repressions, suppression of protests, preventive dekulakization gave rise to a sense of hopelessness and severe deprivation. Attempts to find certainty in the situation of the rapidly disappearing familiar world caused a surge of eschatological moods. The cultural revolution in the countryside also hit the clergy very hard: the breakdown of the usual way of life also undermined the well-being of the rural clergy, who in a peasant country made up the majority of the clergy. Therefore, in the 1930s, the rural clergy became sharply politicized, and the rejection of collective farms was consolidated in the consciousness

28. Ibid. d. 3737. L. 14.

29. Ibid., pp. 381-383.

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rural priests with rejection of the course of Metropolitan Sergius. Rural clergy often agitate against collective farm activities and call for a boycott of elections. And, admittedly, such agitation was sometimes successful, which, in turn, caused new waves of persecution against clergy and active laity.30
In conditions of social instability, social consciousness tends to return to those times that are perceived as stable and definite in order to gain elusive certainty. The closest such time for people who lived in the 1930s was tsarist Russia. At the same time, the existing problems (which, in fact, gave rise to the revolution) were repressed by consciousness, were not taken into account. However, time itself, a historical epoch, is largely an abstraction; the concrete content of an epoch is always connected with concrete personalities who act in a given epoch. For such a super-centralized state as Russia, the figure of the ruler is such a person who represents his time. As applied to the collectivization of the 1930s, such a figure that brought back the era of stability was the figure of Nicholas II or the collective image of the House of Romanov in general. This belief in the return of the old way of life was expressed with extraordinary frankness by the owner of the house where she was hiding, Ivan Yamukov, in an interview with Alexandra Saratova:

If Olga Nikolaevna Romanova is here, it means that there will be a coup in the spring, the Soviet government will be overthrown, and I will take you with great honors, I will be very happy, I will be glorified 31.

Prosfornya of the church of S. Karachev, Kozlovsky district of the CHASSR named after Ulyana in Saratov: "I've been waiting for you for a long time, and I finally did." 32
Monarchism among the Chuvash peasants should be considered not as a proper sympathy for the reign of Nicholas II, but as a form of socialism.

30. See for example: Polyakov A. G. The political position of the believers of the Victorian current in the Russian Orthodox Church in 1927-1932. Zhurnal dlya uchenykh, 2011. N 2 (53). pp. 87-89.

31. Ibid. l. 12 vol. -13.

32. Ibid., l. 49-49 vol.

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reaction to the policy of forced collectivization. Monarchical expectations here played the role of utopian ideas about "returning deliverers", along with the arrival of which the lost"golden age" returns.

K. V. Chistov identifies two types of legends about "returning deliverers": religious-Messianic legends about " saviors "and socio-political legends about"returning kings (tsarevichs)-deliverers". Moreover, Chistov notes that the religious-Messianic legends are "extremely complex and in many ways still unclear"33. Meanwhile, in a social environment whose consciousness was formed with the direct participation of the Christian faith and, more importantly, Christian ideological ideas (and the Russian peasantry of the early twentieth century was just such an environment), both types of legends about the" returning deliverers " are closely related.

Chistov formulates the following plot scheme of such legends:

A. The Deliverer intends to implement social transformation.

B. Removal of the "deliverer".

C. The miraculous rescue of the "deliverer".

D. The "deliverer" is hiding, wandering, or imprisoned.

E. Meetings with the" deliverer " or messages from him.

F. The ruling king tries to prevent the "deliverer" from carrying out his intentions.

G. Return of the "deliverer". N. Recognition of the "deliverer".

I. The reign of the "deliverer".

J. Implementation of social transformations by the deliverer.

K. Reward your closest supporters.

L. Punishment of "traitors".

An important role in the formation of the legend is played by the moment of truth of the "deliverer". In the scheme proposed by Chistov, this truth is formulated in points A and H. In the first case, the truth is confirmed by the intention to carry out the "correct"actions.

Chistov K. 33. Russkaya narodnaya utopiya [Russian Folk Utopia], p. 49.

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social transformations, in accordance with the expectations of the society that forms the legend. In the second case - with the help of special "signs" and witnesses who recognize the "deliverer" 34. In the case of Saratova, only the moment of recognition is obvious: as for social promises, as can be seen from the case, Saratova, in this respect, behaved passively, did not promise anything to anyone, did not preach, did not agitate. And without the first moment, "recognition" can't work. It is obvious that in the case of Saratova, her truth as a" deliverer " is ensured by the very fact of her royal origin. The question arises, where does the truth of the royal dignity itself come from?

The basis for the formation of Christian (and Eastern Christian) views on the nature of royal power is the biblical concept of the power of the king. In biblical culture, the truth of the ruler is the reverse of the truth of God. The truth of God is shown in His ability to give certain benefits. This ability is the content of the contract (covenant) on the part of God in His dealings with the people. Since the existence of people is impossible without the corresponding goods (otherwise the covenant would not have been concluded), people become the full property of God, and God is their lord and ruler. On the part of the people, the content of the contract is the careful worship and observance of moral and religious precepts expressed in the commandments. The fulfillment of the terms of the contract on the part of people forms human righteousness. The opposition of the parties to the contract is removed at the moment of violation or fulfillment of contractual obligations, since the truth of God becomes the measure of human righteousness, and righteousness becomes the measure of God's truth. Since God is an ideal substance, the place or locus in which the covenant is fulfilled becomes a specific person. Since society, as a set of forms of joint activity of people, in the conditions of the existence of social classes, is largely an abstraction, then there is a need for a figure that represents the whole of society in the face of God.

On the other hand, God, as the supreme ruler, the king of men of flesh and blood, is also an abstraction devoid of content. The concreteness of the divine government arises only when there is a material place of His presence

34. Ibid., pp. 55-57.

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and the material subjects who carry out His will. On this basis, the institutions of the temple and mediation arise. The Pentateuch of Moses establishes a special priesthood for the performance of sacrifices, which corresponds to Aaron and his descendants. However, the Bible also knows of another priesthood - that of the mysterious Melchizedek, who is not related to Aaron in any way. The apocryphal Book of Enoch, well known in the Slavic translation, names Melchizedek as a descendant of Enoch, the righteous man whom God took alive to heaven.35 In the time of King David, the functions of a "priest according to the order of Melchizedek" are acquired by the Jewish king himself, who performs the service of God in his people-the Temple of the Most High God. Moreover, the king becomes an image, an image of God, who governs His own people.36 Giving David's rule the character of a measure of political relations is essentially a transfer of the truth of political relations, and consequently of social relations in general, to the sphere of public consciousness, i.e., to the sphere of the ideal, since the present social reality does not provide an opportunity to implement truth in practice.37
The "true kingdom" paradigm becomes particularly relevant in times of social crises. In the religious sphere, a violation of the system of mediation between God and the people leads to a crisis. This violation is expressed in the wrong order of sacrifice, the illegitimacy of the temple and the clergy, or in the unconventional behavior of priests, i.e. in any manifestations of what the Bible calls the word desecration.

In the political sphere, the crisis arises as a result of the king's violation of the Law, devaluing God by serving "false gods". Serving false gods is equivalent to introducing counterfeit money into circulation by the state authorities. Serving false gods means that it is impossible to adequately assess the king's actions using the true measure. The measure itself in this case is an oka-

35. The Book of Enoch: Apocrypha. St. Petersburg: Azbuka Publ., 2000.

Barker M. 36. The Temple Roots of the Liturgy, http://www.marquette.edu/maqom/roots

37. The sacralization of the supreme ruler's power is well researched: Dawson K. G. Religion and Culture. St. Petersburg: Aleteya Publ., 2000; Blok M. Koroli-chudotvortsy, Moscow: Yazyki russkoy kul'tury, 1998; Uspenskiy B. A. Tsar i samozvanets. Imposture in Russia as a cultural and historical phenomenon//Etudy o russkoy istorii [Etudes on Russian History], St. Petersburg: Azbuka Publ., 2002, pp. 149-196 and others.

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it is considered undervalued. The consequence of such an inflation of God is the arbitrariness of the king, the policy of such a ruler is automatically perceived as illegitimate, and therefore the king himself becomes illegitimate, i.e. untrue, wrong.38
The system of relations "God - temple - king - people" becomes paradigmatic, and is further reproduced in all societies that accept the Biblical tradition. In this scheme, all components are interchangeable and, in crisis situations, one replaces the other.

As Chistov notes, a necessary condition for the formation of utopian legends is the situation of crisis, instability, and the breakdown of traditionally established social relations and public consciousness. In addition, an important factor was the fall of centralized power, which formed a strong state, and the change of dynasty.39 All this is completely true for the situation in which Alexandra Saratova's activity took place. In my opinion, no less significant was the fact that this period was marked by a religious crisis, the collapse of the largest Russian religious institution - the Orthodox Greek-Russian Church, which split into conflicting parts - Renovationists, Tikhonites, Gregorians, etc. All these units claimed to be the successor to the pre-revolutionary Church, but such a succession, for many, was completely unobvious. In the minds of the peasants, the era of socio-economic stability was correlated with the figure of Emperor Nicholas II, and the truth of the last tsar's rule was justified through the existence of the "right" Church and "right" priests. This interchangeability of the functions of the "kingdom" and "priesthood" in the mass image of Nicholas II (I will add from myself - and all the last Romanovs) was noticed by E. E. Levkievskaya: "The popular cult of the Royal Martyrs has developed <...> a recognizable stereotype of the tsar, most often embodied in the images of a military man and a priest, which is associated with the two most important paternalistic functions attributed to Nicholas II - protective and pastoral. " 40
38. For more information, see Berman A. The Kingdom of Heaven: A Critical Introduction to Christian Dogmatics (logical and historical aspect)//Problems of theory and history of Christian culture. Collection of articles. Cheboksary: VF MADI Publ., 2011.

Chistov K. 39. Russkaya narodnaya utopiya [Russian Folk Utopia], p. 54.

Levkievskaya E. E. 40. Narodny kult Tsar-martyr i problemy identichnosti v sovremennom russkogo obshchestve [People's cult of the Tsar-Martyr and problems of identity in modern Russian society]//Culture through the prism of identity. Moscow: In-

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The contamination of the "priesthood and kingdom" turns such a socio-political phenomenon as imposture into a religiously motivated practice.

Russia of the 1920s and 1930s, like other countries of "peripheral capitalism", was a society with different economic structures. Along with advanced knowledge-intensive industries, traditional peasant farming and forms of social consciousness corresponding to agricultural production were located side by side. It is not surprising that in the context of a social crisis, this consciousness turns to its usual schemes and reproduces the ideological constructions characteristic of the early Modern period.

Bibliography

Archive materials

State Historical Archive of the Chuvash Republic.

F. 2669 (State Security Committee of the CHASSR).

Literature

Alekseev V. V., Nechaeva M. Yu. Resurrected Romanovs?.. K istorii samozvanchestva v Rossii XX veka: v 2 ch. Ch. 1 [To the history of imposture in Russia of the XX century]. Yekaterinburg: Institute of History and Archeology, 2000.

Arkhipova A. The last "tsar-deliverer": Soviet mythology and folklore of the 20-30s of the XX century. N 12. Online version - http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/oi2online/i2_online_arkhipova.pdf

Berman A. Materials on the history of the movement of True Orthodox Christians-Mikhailovtsy. Cheboksary, 2007.

Berman A. The Kingdom of Heaven: A Critical Introduction to Christian Dogmatics (logical and historical aspect)//Problems of theory and history of Christian culture. Collection of articles. Cheboksary, VF MADI Publ., 2011.

Blok M. Koroli-chudotvortsy [Kings-Miracle Workers], Moscow: Yazyki russkoi kul'tury, 1998.

A true and faithful soldier of Christ. Secret Bishop of the CPI Mikhail (Yershov). Biography, letters, documents / Comp. by I. V. Ilichev, Moscow: Bratonezh Publ., 2011.

The Book of Enoch: The Apocrypha. St. Petersburg: Azbuka Publ., 2000.

Dawson K. G. Religion and Culture. St. Petersburg: Aleteya Publ., 2000.

Levkievskaya E. E. The popular cult of the Tsar-martyr and problems of identity in modern Russian society//Culture through the Prism of Identity, Moscow: Indrik, 2006, pp. 183-208. Online version http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/oi2online/12_online_arkhipova.pdf.

drik, 2006. pp. 183-208. Online version http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/oi2online/12_online_arkhipova.pdf

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Polyakov A. G. Political position of believers Victorian currents in the Russian Orthodox Church in 1927 - 1932//Klio. Zhurnal dlya uchenykh, 2011. N 2 (53). pp. 87-89.

Uspensky B. A. Tsar i samozvanets [The Tsar and the Impostor]. Imposture in Russia as a cultural and historical phenomenon//Etudes about Russian history. St. Petersburg: Azbuka Publ., 2002, pp. 149-196.

Chistov K. Russkaya narodnaya utopiya (genezis i funktsii sotsial'no-utopicheskikh legend) [Russian Folk Utopia (genesis and Functions of socio-utopian legends)].

Barker M. The Temple Roots of the Liturgy. http://www.marquette.edu/maqom/Roots.pdf

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